Jeff Pelletier, a path runner and filmmaker out of Vancouver, ran to a shockingly shut second-place end on the mythical Moab 240, a 240-mile (386-kilometre) race hosted by means of Vacation spot Path. Pelletier’s 70 hours, 53 mins and 16 seconds. Pelletier was once simply moments at the back of winner Jesse Haynes (70 hours, 47 mins and 49 seconds), an achieved ultrarunner from Coto de Cazi, Cali. whose finishes come with Bigfoot 200 and Hardrock Staying power Run.
Moab 240 is a part of Vacation spot Path’s ‘Triple Crown’ of 200-milers, which contains Bigfoot 200 in Washington State and Tahoe 200 within the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and Nevada. Runners have 116 hours to finish a 239.66-mile loop that starts and leads to Moab, Utah, mountain climbing and descending 9,621 metres.
“I’ll perpetually take note this superb and difficult three-day adventure by means of how it completed, with a 12-mile dash,” Pelletier shared on Instagram on Tuesday. Vacation spot Path known as the race between Pelletier and Haynes an “epic combat.”
Bigfoot 200 champ is able to take on Western Canada’s first 200-miler
“This was once arguably the nearest combat between first and moment position that we’ve ever observed at one among our races, as Jesse fought for the final 100 miles to stay his lead, with moment position finisher Jeff Pelletier not up to a mile at the back of,” they added.
Pelletier has completed a number of famend 200-mile races in Europe, together with the Tor des Géants in 2018 (a race that traverses the Aosta Valley within the Italian Alps) and the Swiss Peaks 360K in 2019, the place he completed nineteenth total. Moab 240 was once his first 200-mile-plus distance in North The us, and prior to the race Pelletier shared that the race have been a very long time coming.
“I’ve been in need of to toe the road at an American 200 miler for a very long time, that have an overly other really feel to these within the Alps and are on very other terrain,” Pelletier mentioned. “The Moab 240 mile will probably be my longest race thus far in relation to distance, however optimistically my shortest 200 miler in relation to time on ft.” Pelletier was once proper, despite the fact that he couldn’t have predicted the problem between Haynes and himself, which lasted for greater than 100 miles.
“He labored his method up within the box from about fifteenth prior to the midway mark,” Vacation spot Path mentioned. “He ended up in a race for first position for the final 100 miles of the race, a long time to run neck-and-neck for.”
After chasing Haynes for 70 miles, Pelletier entered the overall phase of the race, one he had educated on and felt conversant in. With legs that felt contemporary, the runner felt the chances have been in his favour, however he was once not able to near the five-minute hole to take first: “…the ones ultimate miles have been one of the vital most pleasurable I’ve ever run, and this was once by means of some distance my most enjoyable race end,” Pelletier mentioned.
American ultrarunner Sally McRae took first position at the girls’s aspect, crossing the road in 86 hours, 18 mins, and 33 seconds. She was once additionally the feminine winner of the 2023 Triple Crown, together with her mixed end occasions at Tahoe, Bigfoot and Moab.
For complete result of Moab 240, head right here.